Chapter 4

Darry had been sitting on the couch. After hearing the new regarding his brother, nothing else seemed important. Not even Ponyboy getting accepted to the private school. Negative thoughts poured into his mind. Why must everything be so terrible for them? It was already a struggle to keep them together with their financial problems, and then with Ponyboy being involved in a murder case that nearly split them apart too.

And now this happens, something that they couldn't control. All of that hard work was for nothing. It leads to this event present. Soda came walking up the hallway and fell onto the couch next to Darry. The eldest brother looked at his sibling and asked,

"Is Pony asleep?"

Soda nodded with response as well as,

"Cried himself to sleep."

The two sat there for a while. The only sound that could be heard was Two-Bit rumbling through the fridge for a beer. He came in after a while and fell into the armchair, another addition to sadness.

"When do you two have to go?" asked Darry.

"Not for a while," answered Soda and he handed the letter to Darry.

He read the letter and saw that it would be a while before the two best friends would depart to the war zone. Darry then sat up.

"Well until you two leave, we're not going to act like this," said Darry, almost in a commanding voice.

"We're going to make sure the both of you have something good remember. Right?"

Two-Bit put a smirk on his face and sat up along with Darry.

"I second that!" he yelled.

Darry looked down at Soda and continued.

"Savvy, Pepsi-Cola?!"

Darry reached his hand down towards his younger brother, whose blank face suddenly turned into smile.

"Gotcha!" he nearly yelled and grabbed Darry's hand. With only a quarter of the remarkable strength, Darry lifted Soda off the sofa with one hand and onto his feet.

"We'll make sure of it," said Two-Bit. "I'm going to go ahead on home. Be sure to call me if you need me."

"Definitely," exclaimed Soda with a grin, with that Two-Bit left the house, but when he reached the bottom of the porch, he remembered he had to tell Soda what he had heard at school. He turned around but suddenly stopped himself. He couldn't tell him now. He would have to find the right time.

"Besides," continued Darry. "I've got some good news anyway. Pony's been accepted to a private school for writing."

Sodapop's head jolted in his brother's direction and his smile increased.

"That is good!"

With that he lunged into his brother's arm, almost the same way Pony did.

"When did you hear this?"

"Just yesterday. Pony brought this packet home."

With that, Darry picked up the packet and handed it to Soda. He looked at the page that it was already turned to and noticed the address of school, which resulted in his facial expression changing again. Darry noticed and asked,

"What's wrong?"

"The school is in Georgia."

Sodapop handed the packet to his older brother and he re-read the part that Soda had noticed. He must have not gotten to this part when reading it last night, or he may have been too tired to notice the address when he began to read it.

"I don't think he noticed it either," pointed out Darry.

"We'll have to tell him tomorrow night. Right now, try to get some sleep. It hasn't been a usual day for us."

"Yeah…Well...G'night."

"G'night. And we will give you something to remember, Pepsi-Cola."

Sodapop just smiled again and trailed back towards his room.

The next day at school, Ponyboy walked through the hallways with the same saddened look he carried last night. Darry mentioned that they would have to give Soda and Steve something to remember before they are sent over to Vietnam.

'The hell with Steve,' he thought. Why did they have to draft Soda? Why him? He was the small connection between Darry and him. He belonged in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Not overseas!

"Hey Ponyboy."

The teenager turned around and noticed the girl that had approached him yesterday after school. She looked even better than before.

"Why didn't you call me last night?" she asked.

"Oh…Um…I'm sorry…um…I didn't catch…"

"Crystal…Just call me Crystal."

"Yeah. Sorry I didn't call you Crystal…Just something bad happened at home?"

"Oh really," she said sympathetically and she rubbed Pony's arm, which lightened him up a bit.

"What happened?"

"I-I really don't want to talk about it."

"C'mon," she pleaded. "You can tell me."

The bell rang suddenly which signaled that the students would be late if they didn't arrive to their classes in one minute. Before Ponyboy could take off, she said,

"I'll see you at lunch. Then we'll talk. Okay?"

Ponyboy couldn't do anything but nod and she walked off to her class. He stared at her as she strolled down the hallway. She was beautiful, and it was something about her that nearly made Pony spill out what happened last night.